Philosophic Ramblings (Part II): Religion and Politics

Since the heyday of Billy Graham in the 1950s to the 1980s, Protestantism has evolved mostly to become silent on secular issues or to speak only to promulgate politically correct (PC) proclamations depending on the trendy issues of the day.

I was brought up as a Presbyterian. Presbyterianism originally believed in the Elect and predestination. As a 14-year-old boy when I discussed this with my pastor, a learned man and respected pillar of the Miami community, he brushed it aside to talk to me about the power of faith. Protestantism, as far as theology and political statesmanship is concerned, has all too frequently become a watered down, Kool-Aid philosophy. During the Cold War at the international level, it was largely infiltrated by the Soviet Communist Party and the KGB to serve as a vehicle of international communism. A good example is the World Council of Churches, which became a subversive, communist front organization promoting world peace and capitulation to communism. One may earnestly respond with a critical question of the Catholic Church. "What about Liberation Theology?" Liberation theology was condemned both by Mother Teresa (photo, left) and by Pope John Paul II. It was not mainstream Catholic philosophy. Catholicism does believe in faith and in the importance of good works and private charity, but not via government imposed socialism or violence, as was the case in Central America with communist rebels in El Salvador and Guatemala who were fighting their governments and whose admirers in the U.S. attributed their causes to be based on Liberation Theology.

On the subject of intellectual resistance to communism and collectivism during the Cold War and to Islamic Fundamentalism, one finds that the Catholic Church has been at the forefront, particularly since the time of John Paul II (photo, left below) and Benedict XVI (photo, right below), both of them statesmen of the highest order. The Catholic hierarchy, as an organization, is derived from the ancient Roman Senate and preserves to this day many imperial rituals and traditions. Thus, Catholic dogma is based on the gradual acquisition of knowledge over time and is not based on popularity and the trendy issues of the day.(1,2,3,4)

I believe this is another reason that popes, priests, and the Catholic faith have been targeted with a steady barrage of bad press and even derision by the main stream media and academic circles, circles who have a penchant for socialism and Karl Marx. Consider the media coverage of pedophile priests as opposed to pederasts in governmental youth social organizations. Stories of pedophile priests will be plastered over every news source repeatedly and even on daytime television. To find out about pedophiles and pederasts in youth drug counseling programs, mentoring, and other trendy organizations, where sexual abuse is even more prevalent, one will have to do his own research and dig deeply in the sociologic literature.

Today in practice, I have found there are only two philosophies that stand up with solid arguments to the "feel good" liberal, "legal plunder" income redistribution, collectivist authoritarian concepts that are so often alleged to be defended by the philosophy of pragmatism. One, as I mentioned, is Catholic Church dogma and the other is Ayn Rand's Objectivism. Two philosophic trends that are at opposite philosophic poles in the humanitarian spectrum.

Europe has been more vacillating against the Islamic terrorist threat. In Spain, the socialists as soon as they obtained power carried out a disgraceful and cowardly act of capitulation, backed by a fickle Spanish electorate — submission to Islamic terrorism! There are historical explanations for this Spanish submission. Italian Catholics under the Premier Berlusconi and Polish Catholics have not been completely cowed by Islamic fanaticism. French Catholics and Protestants have supported President Sarkozy in his battle against the Islamic takeover of their own country, despite the liberal French media's opposition to his policy. Chancellor Angela Merkle in Germany with the backing of both conservative Catholics and Protestants has just condemned Multiculturalism. So there is still hope that we will not stand alone.

Church Persuasion or The Use of Force by the State

The question of taxing churches comes and goes. But before getting involved in taxing church property and the faithful who support them, shouldn't we consider reducing government to constitutional proportions? Concomitant with socialism and the manipulation of ever-increasing public funds, we have seen an increase in waste, fraud, and abuse. It happens when public servants use other people's money in profligate government programs.

Let's begin by selling all federal government property, equipment, whether lying by the wayside or in government warehouses, buildings, land, or other assets, particularly those not authorized in the Constitution, such as those related to education, health and social services. And while we are at it, let's shut down those unconstitutional federal departments.

Faith and religion provide an invisible support to the moral code, encourage discipline, and promote civility. Their influence on moral conduct and overt behavior is unseen and unquantifiable but certain. Without the prop of religion and our churches, crime would certainly increase, and then the state would have to step in, pass more laws against the law-abiding, suppressing more of our liberties in the name of combatting the lawlessness of the crime perpetrators.

Thus, I find the Judeo-Christian religion beneficial to Western civilization and conservatism, and a just bulwark against socialism, lawlessness, and even the chaos of incipient anarchy and tyranny.

The First Amendment proscribes Congress from establishing a state religion, but not against the use of religion in supporting the moral code. The Founding Fathers knew the value of religion upon morality and society, and thus accepted, wrote, and enshrined that freedom as the first Natural and Constitutional right in the First Amendment:

“Congress should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

What legislators have created is a recognized economic benefit to society or a payment to churches for the value of religion — i.e., the tax exemption of churches. I suppose that is the price society pays religion for decreasing the swarm of officers and standing armies required to promote civility, law and order — with a minimum of force.

But a wall of separation between church and state does not appear in the U.S. constitution, but in a fecundity of memoranda in the ACLU hierarchy! We should all look around from time to time to see who are our friends and enemies, and whose company we keep.

The anarchists of Barcelona found this out too late during the Spanish Civil War when they were devoured by the company they kept!(5)

I prefer to have the church exempted from taxation for good works and even more importantly for helping to maintain morality, law and order, rather than having a more police state presence to achieve the same. It is only the totalitarian states that need no religious support, requiring no morality because they maintain law and order via repression, brute force, and the police power of the State. They have no need for persuasion and religion.(6)

I was asked once, "What about those lost souls that choose not to associate with a church but must pay higher taxes without the benefit of the hereafter?" My response was, "They are getting the primary benefit, even if they are unaware of it! It is like concealed carry firearm licenses. We are all receiving the proved benefit of reduced crime because the criminal does not know who in the law-abiding population has a concealed carry license!

4) As to Pope John Paul II and his condemnation of collectivism and communism, the references are legion. He is on track to become a saint, who should also be titled John Paul II, "the Great" for his contribution to the collapse of communism in USSR and Europe. See Carl Bernstein's and Marco Politi's His Holiness — John Paul II and the Hidden History of Our Time (1996).

It provides a summary of the philosophy of Objectivism, as well as a prediction of where we are headed as a social democracy. It is not surprising she was a Russian emigre, who had seen the other side — MAF

There are may interesting points of introspection in this article that require thought and consideration. The author excels in his knowledge of history, philosophy, as well as politics that makes this a didactic essay that should be useful to the initiates as well as the scholar. I wish more people would read these essays. Thanks.

Obama is just as 'arrogant' and as we saw from the look upon his face. "He thinks he has it all sewed up"!

And I for one,want him to continue thinking just that.
I agree;people lie on polls I've done it myself more this year than ever. I've always been one of those that insisted upon the 'truth'.
However, something one must learn mighty quick if they are going to 'argue politics' and to me that's this.

"You've got to take what the left says(because that party for all practical purposes is now a socialist party) and hold it close to your chest. And at the right time;you use it against them"!

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer..I firmly believe that because like I said; everything in this country is now political.
This is not my 1956 anymore.

"Libya ambassador [sic] Chris Stevens killed: Al-Qaeda terrorist in Libya may have used riot over anti-Muslim movie as a diversion to pull off 9/11 anniversary attack. Officials say [US] Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed Tuesday night when he and a group of embassy employees went to the consulate to try to evacuate staff." New York Daily News 9-12-12

"BENGHAZI, Libya — A mob armed with guns and grenades launched a fiery attack on the U.S. Consulate, killing the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans....The attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens - the first U.S. ambassador to die in the line of duty since 1979 - came on Tuesday's 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist strike and presented a new foreign policy crisis for the United States in a region trying to recover from months of upheaval.

"While the deadly assault was initially blamed on an anti-Islamic YouTube video, U.S. officials say the Obama administration is also investigating whether it was a planned terrorist strike to mark the anniversary of 9/11. Intelligence officials said the attack on the Benghazi consulate was too coordinated or professional to be spontaneous, according to a U.S. counterterrorism official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the incident publicly.

"Libya's interim president, Mohammed el-Megarif, apologized for what he called the "cowardly" assault on the consulate, which also killed several Libyan security guards in the eastern city. Just before the Benghazi violence, protests also flared in EGYPT, where crowds angry over the film climbed the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and tore down an American flag, which they replaced briefly with a black, Islamist flag. "The demonstrators in Cairo cited an obscure movie made in the United States by a filmmaker who calls Islam a "cancer." Video excerpts posted on YouTube depict the Prophet Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a madman in an overtly ridiculing way, showing him having sex and calling for massacres."

Since foreign policy will be re-injected into elections, a little history is in order:

Re the Middle East, I wrote on 12-12-11:

...When George W. Bush was President, Muammar Qaddafi renounced the use of terrorism and allowed the UN to inspect his country for nuclear weapons. Of course that helped seal his fate because years later, once he had become vulnerable, Qaddafi was targeted by a president who needed to increase his popularity numbers in the polls. The US (i.e., Obama, the Nobel Prize winner) bombed Libya; Qaddafi was killed; Libya like Tunisia and Egypt, two former allies and friends, may well fall under the control of the Islamic Brotherhood and radical clerics...like Iran, potential enemies of the USA...

And on 2-12-12 added:

It only takes but a relatively small number of zealot terrorists to disrupt a country. The "Arab Spring" is becoming an Islamic fundamentalist Winter of the world's discontent and a nightmare for the vast majority of peaceful Muslims under which it is proclaimed.

I and others had warned: "Be wary of the "freedom-seeking Arab Spring Revolutions"; they are not our friends and we will get worse regimes than what we have got now! Prophetic words indeed!

Today we are harvesting bitter fruit!In the Middle East, the USA has now very few true friends, but when Reagan was president we had strong allies in the Middle East– e.g., Egypt and Turkey (a member of NATO). We had already lost Iran to the Ayatollah under Jimmy Carter, just as we had lost Ethiopia, Angola, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, etc., to the communists, under his leadership!

Moreover, Egypt was turned from a Soviet satellite to a staunch American ally with Anwar Sadat (1971-1980). To his credit Jimmy Carter did win kudos for helping establish Egyptian- Israeli peace at Camp Davis, a real breakthrough, his only foreign (or domestic) policy achievement. Nevertheless, from 1954 to 1979, Iran had a responsible government in the Shah, a trusted ally, and most importantly, was a committed US friend, a government that was later betrayed by Jimmy Carter.

And it was not Egypt or Tunisia (as far as US interests are concerned), but Iran, that today is in need a true Velvet revolution, or rather a "Persian Spring." So we still have a major, insoluble problem in Iran, a nuclear threat slowly unfolding that the Israelis may decide they have to tackle head on, as their security and very existence are threatened.

As to Egyptian politics I recommend the reader to peruse the book "The KGB- The Secret Work of the Soviet Secret Agents by John Barron (1974), Chapter 2, "Secrets from the Desert," pp.29-62. It would place the Egyptian "Arab Spring" in a somewhat different perspective, or on the very least, will acquaint the history oriented reader with a little know chapter of Middle Eastern policy worth noting!

There was a time in this country when many didn't argue politics. I was one of those people.

However, there is absolutely NOTHING in this country that isn't political anymore.
Even our GOD!

The DNC denied God 'three times' in succession.
The DNC has supported marriage between same sex.
The DNC encourages Race and Class Warfare in order to "WIN" a political game.

The DNC and Obama and company have scourged The ENTIRE country and taken up the cause of the Enemy in not only this country but abroad against the American People.

Obama has slapped us all in the face with our Checks and Balances System in our Government by Executive Order that funded the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic Fascist against our Embassies around the world.

And with his continued support of that endeavor they are coming 'Back' to this nation again to repeat 9/11.

I have said for literally weeks,Obama will not be debating a weak and haggard John Weak Knees McCain.

He debated a Professional LEADER. And it was never as clear as it was in that first debate last night.

And People in this country had better get an attitude adjustment about 'arguing politics' because if you don't;you're going to find yourself standing at the corner of Fascist and Marxism St. trying to 'decide' which path to take.
As long as you SIT DOWN and SHUT UP;Politicians will do to you what YOU ALLOW!

This country is going to see a landslide victory for Romney and I've said it for weeks.

So if you don't want to argue Politics I suggest you fall on your knees at least once a day and "ASK God to return" To this great Nation because "THAT" is where our help is going to come from .
I'm always reminded of this verse for those that believe;

"I will lift up my eyes unto the hills - from whence cometh my help? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth." Ps. 121:1

If we continue to fly leaderless in this nation; you're going to be arguing with the Chinese and by then;it's going to be entirely too late for you or anyone else to open their mouth to argue politics.

Stand up and take control of your country. It does NOT belong to Politicians ,YOU are the Owner! Just like Me

I agree uneed! It is time for Middle Class Americans to awaken from their slumber. The first Romney-Obama debate is the first shock and amply shows that 1) the Emperor wears no clothes 2) and Clint Eastwood, the man with no name, debated an empty chair!

And about the persistently troubling Presidential Election polls, if they don't change before election day, I will repeat here the story I recounted elsewhere:

That these Presidential election polls, dead even, or worse, with Obama winning, reminds me most vividly of an experience in Central America after the collapse of Soviet communism and the end of the USSR's assistance to Cuba, Nicaragua, and the communist rebels in El Salvador (FMLN) and Guatemala.

Comandante Daniel Ortega and his brother, Defense Minister Humberto Ortega (i.e., initially imitating the Cuba experience with Fidel and Raul Castro) decided to go with elections and establishing a People's democracy in Nicaragua ( this time unlike in Cuba, where Fidel Castro, continued to call for "Socialism or Death"). The Ortega Brothers thought they had nothing to fear; the polls repeatedly taken favored the Ortega brothers and the Sandinistas over 90% over the political party of Reagan's "despised" Contras.

The Nicaraguan people were everywhere clamoring for the Ortega brother's victory, as Daniel Ortega, the presidential shoo-in and former left-wing popular dictator, paraded in full confidence with his expensive sunglasses and clothes he obtained while visiting New York and the USA!

In the 1990 Nicaragua elections, the polls reflected the FEAR of the people to tell the truth to the pollsters. The people new better! In the USA in 2012, the polls reflect the political correctness– the PC– of the times when the people tell the pollster what they think the pollsters want to hear and what they are supposed to believe. yes, the American people are parroting what they believe is politically correct, but not what is really in their hearts!

In Nicaragua, the Sandinistas were shocked into reality when the polls closed. Then and there, they were trounced by the conservatives National Opposition Union, Reagan's Contras, led by Violeta Chamorro!(photo, right) She was president for two terms.

In the USA in November, Romney and the GOP will trounce Obama in the Electoral College and by a small majority in the popular vote. We will retain the House, and perhaps even win the U.S. Senate. That is my prediction, and remember, the game is not over until it's over!

Hi Ben, excellent post! For sometime now, the liberal media (and now Nancy Pelosi) have been fantasizing about a 6-3 favorable decision by the Supreme court stating that the "conservative leaning" justices such as Anthony Kennedy, Roberts, Alito and even Scalia, are "independent-minded" and in the end may support ObamaCare as constitutional because they "realize" the country needs it. In one article, they even stated the "possibility" that Clarence Thomas could be the only dissenting vote from the majority!

Yeah, I know it's a couple days late and would have been a good one to float around on Memorial Day but I just ran onto it this evening and thought it would be a good one for this post. This is a BenCats1 warning: If you don't have kleenexes handly you might get some> http://home.comcast.net/~singingman7/TNOTW.htm I liked this one so much I have it posted as a link on our Post 6605 website and believe it or not, it's garnered quite a few comments. Enjoyed Dido's posts, it's a shame the Democrats are so darn money hungry and want to raise taxes so much they'll pass legislation chasing successful people all around the world. Obama won't be able to do it before the election but if he gets reelected you can bet your big bippy he will try everything in his power to raise taxes! I am geting some postive feelings about the election (Yes, I know it's early) but when I see Romney tied in several states and about even in Ohio and leading in Fla, it brings a smile to my face. I do believe Ohio will be difficult due to it's a strong Union state but everything is possible. I do think his announcedment on the gay marriage support will in the long term hurt him more than help him, but don't expect it to change too many blacks minds as I think they will say one thing and vote for him on election day (even the preachers!) So we now have our nominee and I hope he can lead us to the White House and at this point it certainly is possible. I honestly think a lot of folks have finally seen the hand writing on the wall and now realize the savior is something that's in his own mind and then it ends. Interesting figure that 129,000 millionaires have disappeared and I know they didn't all move their citizenship LOL. I spend most of my time keeping up with the headlines on the election specificially and I'm still upbeat and very postive so far in what I'm seeing from both the polls and what Romney has been saying. I know there are those out there that say they are concerned about his conservative credentials but I think that should be secondary when he's running against a serious socialist and as more time elapses, the more it becomes apparent or at least to me LOL. You don't really have to look to hard to find it as he has become rather blatant and doesn't even try to hide it much anymore. Pelosi's comment today that the SC will rule Obamacare Constitutional 6-3 because she knows the Constituion was the joke of the month if not the year. I have not known Nancy Pelosi to know very much about anything since she got to be in the headlines. One thing for sure, the statement "We don't got no rules up here, we make them up as we go along!" will go down as one most remembered. I know she didn't say that but she's said some just as ridiculous. I know what District she represents in Calif so no wonder she continues to get reelected. Let's just hope our nominee Romney can keep smiling and having the ladies vote turning around for him can only help! I think he's gonna give us a good chance of beating the "One!"

I am not particularly keen on politics or religion, this or that way, however, the post was very informative and useful to me from an educational point of view. It was interesting to read, especially once it is so insightful and well-penned, I agree with you on the whole.

I would be remiss, if despite my tardiness, I did not post this comment, this good news from Spain last elections.

Conservatives win big time in Spain, and the Socialists are thrown out after cowardly elections of 2004!

"'Spain rejects socialism – only three per cent of EU citizens now have Left-wing governments"--- The Telegraph (UK; 11/21/11)'

I had posted the following under the Telegraph website:

It is about time Spanish voter regain their senses. In Spain, as soon as the socialists obtained power, they carried out a shameful, disgraceful, and cowardly act of capitulation, backed by a fickle Spanish electorate---plainly an act of submission to Islamic terrorism!

The Madrid train bombing attack by al-Qaeda took place in March 2004, four days before Spain’s general election that consequently overthrew the conservative, US-friendly government of Jose Maria Aznar’s Partido Popular and replaced it with the cowardly Jose Luis Zapatero’s Partido Socialista (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party).

Up to that time, Spain appeared not to have gotten over their own conquest by the Moors (i.e., North African Muslims) that took place in the 8th century; their own Reconquista (Remember, El Cid) took hundreds of years, until 1492, when the Most Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, finally assaulted and conquered the last remaining Moorish Kingdom, rich Granada (Alhambra)!

More recently and what most people do not know, even many in the world's intelligentsia, is that to cap the story, many of Generalissimo Francisco Franco's vanguard elite troops, who actually took the last bastion of Republican (Communist-controlled) Spain around Madrid--- were Moslem, anti-communist, Moorish troops from North Africa in Spain’s last remaining possessions!

The “Republicans” (communists is what they really were and led by the Stalinist thugs, who despoiled Spain of her gold before they retreated in 1939*) took a beating by Franco’s Moors! The Socialists is Spain can not still get over it!

Other good headlines and news from around the world (11-21-11):

1)'Poland statue erected of Ronald Reagan by Lech Walesa'

2) 'Turkey a member of NATO and friend of the USA is today is booming! "And with its growing economic clout has come a new assertiveness that has led some to wonder if it harbors neo-Ottoman ambitions to resurrect its role as a dominant power in the Middle East.'

'Turkish diplomats dismiss talk of neo-Ottomanism. They point out that Turkey is a loyal member of the Nato alliance, an important EU trading partner, and that it remains firmly committed to reforms to make it eligible for EU membership, should that moment ever come.'

3) Socialists who had destroyed the economy of Greece are out. Let's hope the new Interim government reels in the built-in socialist spending and saves that nation!

Unfortunately, we have to wait until November 2012, to vote our American socialists out, if we last that long!

As I have said before, Central and Eastern Europeans, who now better (i.e., Vaclav Havel, the Czechs, the Poles, the Hungarians, even the Russians) are moving away as far as they can from socialism; the western Europeans are stuck in the mud with it. And when they try to dump Karl Marx and socialism, they get riots like in France, Greece, even Great Britain. Perhaps Spain can set a new example! MAF

There are so many good thoughts in this article that could be learned by those who pay attention, but it is not easy for many people to use an eclectic approach to learning, philosophy, history, theology, not to mention reasoned common sense!

Fransini Giraldo is a Colombian girl who dances her own style of Salsa. In this video, she dances to the rhythm of Sonora Carruseles de Colombia, presumably in the Colombia countryside. Published July 16, 2013.